Down the Rabbit Hole
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: not really sure what to say for summary. Daryl/powerful and weird OC rated M for language, situations and later on- smut. I did get a chap mixed up with another story but now that's fixed.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay this is my second Walking Dead story.**

 **Enjoy the weirdness.**

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August. thirteenth, 2010-

Greene Farm

Hershel stepped outside of the large two story house after looking at the Grime's boy for a breath of air and sighed the moment he was spotted by the child's father, Rick Grimes. _Crud_. He thought as the man stopped talking with his second in command and patted the redneck on the shoulder before heading towards the elderly man.

 _Here it comes_ , Hershel thought almost dismally. The next installment of the man begging for himself, his family and his people to be able to stay. And as much as the elder wanted to just give in and say yes, the land wasn't his. The farm wasn't his.

If Rick and his people truly wanted to stay, they would have to ask Ghost. The land and everything on it (twenty miles of woods in each direction included) belonged to her. It had ever since she had been four.

After the murders of her family for some reason that even Hershel had yet to be told.

Rick made it to the porch steps and opened his mouth to speak. To plea. To bargain. And beg when Hershel cut him off at the knee, "I know what you're going to say Rick and I'm sorry," And he was. Truly, he understood where this man was coming from, but it changed nothing and he needed to know that. "But I can't let you and your people stay."

The man's jaw tensed and he took a moment to glare at the elder. Letting him know his displeasure over his choice without words.

Well he could glare all he wanted. But Hershel couldn't speak for Ghost.

It just wouldn't be right.

He started to tell the man that he could glare all he liked but it wasn't going to help him any when his eldest daughter poked her head out of the house and yelled out, "Dad! Dad!" Fearing at first that Ricks son may have taken a turn for the worst when she suddenly held up their kitten calendar and pointed to the red circle on it and hollered out as she practically jumped around in place in excitement, "It's the thirteenth! The thirteenth!"

Feeling his heart rate drop back to normal. Oh.

One month ago today Ghost had left them at her place to keep an eye on things and made them promise to stay out of trouble for her peace of mind. And for the most part they had. All of them but Otis was still alive and kickin, and while Otis's death would hit the gal hard once she returned- there was nothing any of them could do about it.

The undead had gotten him. And while Hershel had some medical knowledge (enough to keep some alive anyways) Ghost seemed to have far more medical knowledge than he, for one so young.

Ah, he'd be glad when she finally returned home from her month long supply run and maybe took over again and perhaps sat down with Rick and talked to the man about him and his group.

Was it wrong that the mere thought of Rick being stared down and possibly intimidated by his long time family friend made him insanely happy?


	2. Chapter 2

Lisa Grey a.k.a. Ghost, leaned back against the large shiny black pickup that she had found and hotwired on the second day of her month long endeavor to find spare food, clothing, medical supplies and other things, smoking a cigarette. And she had hit the mother load as far as food stuffs went.

She had gone almost thirty miles up and down the highway captured a small herd of deer, pigs, cows, horses- and even had a tank in one of the trailers with some catfish, bass, and shell fish. But that isn't all she had gotten. She had managed to find a group of pheasants, wild turkeys, and chickens that had been left to die by their owners. Well either that or the owners had turned. But then that wasn't her problem.

Turning her back to the woods, where the undead lurked as the animals in the seven large metal trailers behind her truck whinnied and snorted and carry on to the point where she just wanted to put in a CD and turn up the stereo full blast. But if she did that the stupid undead would come and attack her and the animals.

And whether she admitted it or not, her people needed every last thing that she had caught and found whether it be alive or canned. What she had found for her small group could last quite a while. Not only that but there was the multitude of seeds that she had collected for Hershel.

So that he could make a garden.

She betted that if she went on another run later on down the line that she could get enough materials to make a greenhouse for the garden then they could grow all kinds of stuff year round.

And as for the fish and such, half of them would be going into a man made pond that she had dug a while back.

Hearing a moan and some shuffling feet off to her left, she sighed and dropped her cigarette and readied herself for the small confrontation to come. Tilting her head back, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, letting her other side take charge as the scent of rot and decay reached her nose- it make her want to scrunch up her face and sneeze as she reopened her eyes to find that they had changed color from pale moss green to gold.

And let her lips curve up in a small smile before stepping out from around the safety of the car door to greet her 'friends' with a snarl that had the group of undead pausing in their tracks just a few feet away to consider her.

Their dead brains seeming to understand that she was dangerous to them.

 _It's because they recognize you as something more than just one of them._ The voice in her head whispered as several of the corpses backed away...slowly so as not to gain her undivided attention or her wrath. After all, even though they were reanimated corpses- she smelled like death to them.

 _That's right, walk away. There's nothing here for any of you to gnaw on._ She thought almost darkly as she waited for them to amble back into the woods before disengaging the 'other' and returning to normal and popping her neck before looking down at her smoke longingly and sighing again.

Well hell. It had landed in a puddle of...something questionable that the dead littering the road had left behind. And there was no way to salvage that or she would have already. It was a shame too. That had been her last smoke.

Popping her neck again she made a small huffing sound and reached into the truck and dug around for a moment until she pulled something out of one of the bags there. Earning a frightened chirping sound from the mother cat she had saved just a week ago from a whole gang of- well hell, she got tired of saying undead. So from now on they would just be thingys, similar to her and yet, not- to see if it was safe to come out of hiding.

Pulling out a baggy of chips, Lisa looked at the cat, hanging back with one of it's offspring in her mouth and said, "Oh yeah, they're gone. You can come out now," The cat looked at her for a moment then tried to peer around her and see for itself causing Lisa to roll her eyes at the feline before stating, "Come out and bring the kids and I'll give you a can of wet food for dinner. Deal?"

Look at her, she could terrify the 'thingys' but when it came to the feline she wound up bargaining with it just to get it to listen. Granted she somewhat understood where the animal was coming from. It's owners had turned and ate several of it's babies before Lisa had heard it's furious yowling and what few left of it's kitten's crying and had gone off to save them.

So naturally after a traumatic experience like that- the animal was a little more than wary whenever the thingys came around.

The cat waited for several more moments before slowly moving back to the floor of the passenger side of the vehicle where it deposited the kitten in it's mouth and then began the task of moving the others back in place as well while Lisa chuckled softly and climbed into the truck and closed the door and waited on 'momma' to finish and settle down in the floor with the others before she started up the truck and began to drive towards home.

It wouldn't be much longer now.

Just an hour or so.

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Greene Farm?

Maggie stood in the kitchen alone after making Carol and Lori leave, chewing on her thumb nail as she thought over what all she could fix for dinner. Should she use the regular stuff? Or the stuff that was in the hidden underground bunker?

The one that even her dad and sister didn't know about.

She supposed that she could go there and collect some apples that she had hidden there for Ghost, and use them to make a few apple pies. She could also collect a few vegetables for a salad and maybe some meat for the main dish. But the trouble she had with dipping into the stuff was that she would have to make more than one trip since Rick and his people had been eating here in the house for a little while ever since their arrival.

 _Hmm, what to do. What to do_ \- She thought to herself as she leaned over the sink a bit and looked outside at the people. There were so many of them now, which meant more mouths to feed and in all honesty she wasn't sure what Ghost would think of the current situation.

True she had never turned away anyone in need, but every person no matter how kind had their breaking point.


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay**. **You asked for it- ^^**

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It took some doing and some seriously mad driving skills to maneuver the truck and trailers it was pulling behind it up the old dirt road that she usually took in and out of town just to avoid anymore contact with the 'thingys'. But in the end it paid off as she finally pulled into the driveway to the old farm she had lived in most of her life and slowed the truck to a crawl for several seconds at the end of the drive just to survey things from a distance.

Things had changed while she had been gone. That much she could tell due to the number of people moving around her front yard, armed with guns and other weapons along with an old looking beat up RV.

Taking several moments to consider several different scenarios of what she might find once she was at the house and factoring in her current knowledge of the fact that the 'thingys' were no longer the only threats out there, she finally decided to go ahead to the house and see what was what.

If the people there were threats- if they had hurt even one of her friends- she'd kill each of them. And she'd do it with a smile.

But if there were simply people looking for help, for shelter and aid to survive...then she would do everything she could to help them stay alive for as long as she could.

First thing was first though, she needed to check on Hershel, Maggie, Beth, Patricia, and Otis and make sure that they were alive and well. Then she'd go from there.

Slowly moving the truck alone the driveway to the house, she absently noted that no one had really noticed her vehicle so far. Which may work to her advantage if the strangers there were unfriendly.

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Dale sat atop his RV enjoying a little bit of sun when he noticed out of the corner of his eye, a large black truck with several large animal trailers being pulled behind it coming up the driveway and suddenly panicked and called out, "Incoming vehicle!"

Every head in the make shift camp turned to see the vehicle making it's way towards the house. Each person's expression holding anything from a bit of determination, to worry, anger and fear.

They didn't know who was in the vehicle and frankly they didn't really care. All they could do is see what they wanted and perhaps send them on their way. After all, theirs was a precarious position. And there was no guarantee that Hershel would let them stay if he suddenly found himself with more mouths to feed.

 _That_ was difficult enough as it was already. What with the walkers in the area eating any wild life they could get their hands on and polluting the soil of the ground where gardens could be planted. Not to mention the water of every well, creek and river they wandered into.

Their putrid, rotting flesh and blood mixing with the waters and making them toxic to use as drinking sources.

Dale and everyone kept a close eye on the vehicle, noting that it came to a stop for a moment over by Otis's grave before resuming it's seemingly agonizingly slow trek up to the house where it finally came to a stop again and parked as Rick, Shane, Glenn and several others stood with their hands on their weapons- feeling nervous and just a tad bit- well, antsy.

"What do we do?" Shane asked his long time best friend, curious to see what his thoughts on their visitor might be.

"We see what they want and go from there." It wasn't exactly the most detailed plan in the world, but the more information they had then the better they could utilize it and adjust to the situation as needed.

The truck door opened as Hershel and Beth stepped out of the house to see what was going on, and a young girl who looked between sixteen or seventeen years old, climbed out with an old wooden crate held in her hands and started to walk up to them when Rick pulled his gun and said, "Hold it!" In his most authoritative tone before demanding, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"Ghost!" Beth shouted as she ran down the porch steps towards the strange girl, causing Rick and the others to freeze up and watch as Beth latched onto the other girl and hug her. Causing the strange girl to yelp and spin on her heel, taking Beth with her as she held the crate above her head. "I knew you'd come home! I just knew it!" Beth babbled for several seconds as Hershel walked down the steps and stopped beside Rick and put a hand on his shoulder, causing the man to turn his head to look at him as he motioned for Rick to put his gun away.

Looking back at the stranger and Beth, then back at the elder- Rick chewed his lower lip for a second before sighing and putting his gun away and then motioning for the others to stand down.

It was obvious from the way that Beth and Hershel were acting, that they knew the girl. What had Beth called her again... Ghost?

 _What a strange name for a person to have._ Rick thought as he looked over the girl's features and noted that she certainly looked like a ghost. Heart shaped face, pale skin that looked as if it had never seen more than a minute or so of sunlight in all her years of life, she had pale green eyes and waist length solid white-ish blond hair that was tied back in a thick braid that stood out in stark contrast against her solid black clothing and leather jacket. _But I suppose it fits her-_ Rick thought as the girl walked up to them and stopped to stand just in front of Hershel before holding the crate out to him.

The elder looked down as he lifted his hands to automatically take the crate from her and noticed four newborn kittens. All of them but one were a smoky grey and cream color. The last one however was pitch black and Hershel already had an idea of what Ghost planned to do with the lot once they were bigger.

"They're beautiful Ghost. Do you have the mother too?" Hershel asked, knowing that it would be easier to keep the kittens alive and healthy if the mother was around to take care of them.

"Yeah," The girl replied as she glanced back towards the truck she had drove up in. "She had a bit of a traumatic experience when her owners changed and attacked her and her litter and ate several of the kittens before I could get to them. So she tends to hang back until I give her the green light. A couple of cans of wet food can coax her out into the open so that would probably be the best way to deal with her for the time being. At least until she's used to being around so many people... Speaking of- Where did the beat up RV and everyone in the yard come from?"

"I'll explain things over dinner since there's quite a bit to talk about." Hershel said as the girl nodded and asked,

"Like who's buried down the field?"

"Yeah, like that."

"Alright, I can afford to be patient a little bit longer. How long until dinner?"

"It'll be a while yet since Maggie's cooking. So maybe an hour or two."

"Fantastic. I need to grab a shower, and maybe a short nap."

"I'll wake you when everything is done." Hershel said as the girl gave him a nod and without a word or so much as a glance in their direction to acknowledge them, she went up the porch steps and into the house.

Leaving Rick and the others feeling more than a little insulted.


	4. Chapter 4

The moment that the girl was inside of the house Rick turned to Hershel who was looking over the kittens in the crate and practically growled at the man, "What the hell is going on? Who was that kid?" Hershel didn't reply for a moment, too caught up in his own little veterinary world, Rick supposed, to even bother to process the questions right away. But when the elder finally _did_ answer, Rick started to get a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"The truth is Rick, that kid as you call her, owns this farm and everything on it. Not me. Which was why I kept trying to get you all to leave... It isn't that I don't want to help you, but it didn't feel right to answer you're questions for her. Not when this is her home and we've all been taking advantage of it."

"That is such bullshit. She's just a kid! Why the hell should we listen to her-" Shane started to say when Hershel cut him off at the knee.

"First of all, she's older than she looks. I think before all this happened I was able to calculate her age to being in between twenty seven to twenty eight. Give or take a year of two. And second of all, you will listen to her if she tells you to go or you'll go to bed one night and never wake up."

"Wait, wait, wait-" Glenn cut in before asking in a whispered tone, "Are you saying that she'd kill us all if we refused to leave?"

Hershel stared at him for several heartbeats and then turned and started up the porch steps and called out to them, "I'll send one of the gals to fetch everyone for dinner once it's done. You can all ask your questions then." And then he too disappeared into the house after setting the little crate next to the door, just out of the way.

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Lisa had just finished showering and was stepping out of the bathroom in her bedroom when she saw Beth sitting on her bed with an first aid kit sitting next to her. Just waiting to ambush her apparently. "What you doing?" She asked the girl curiously, causing her to jump a bit and twist her body around to face her, and blushed.

"I thought I'd come up and bandage you if you were bit anywhere. Especially since the lot downstairs are pretty jumpy around people who have gotten bit." Lisa stared the girl down for a moment, wanting to tell her that the lot downstairs had every right to be jump around anyone who got bit by one of the 'thingys'.

Their bites held a weird bacteria that killed and changed pretty much everyone.

Still, she had to admit- the girl had a good idea.

Especially since her entire left arm and various parts of her torso were covered in bite markings. They were old of course, from back before the outbreak by at least ten years or so. But she doubted that would matter much to a bunch of paranoid gun toting strangers just trying to survive.

"That's...a good idea actually," Lisa said as she dried her long hair a bit more and then dropped her hands to her sides and sighed. She was glad someone caught her mistake before she wound up with a bullet in her skull. "Mind if I get some clothes on before you make me a mummy?"

Beth giggled and turned back around so that she at least had _some_ privacy while dressing. And sat there laughing quietly at her while Lisa pulled on her panties, a bra, and a black wife beater. All while muttering and cursing under her breath when she nearly tripped over her own feet and fell before finally managing to stop struggling with her things and sat down on the bed just to the side of Beth with her brush in her hand.

"Okay kiddo, lets get this done before we're called down to suffer some food poisoning from Maggies cooking." Lisa said in an overly chipper tone, earning another laugh from Beth as she opened the kit up and pulled out several things of bandages and set them aside for a moment. And then after taking Lisa's wrist in her hand, picked up one of the rolls and begun the task of bandaging her arm.


	5. Chapter 5

The moment Beth finished wrapping her arm, Lisa flopped down on her bed and closed her eyes and simply listened to the sounds of the house and the people in it for a moment. She could hear and sense almost everyone indoors. Patricia. Hershel. Maggie. Beth.

She heard the scratching at the front door of the house followed by several meows from momma cat. The mewling of her kittens in the crate next to the door where Hershel had probably left them so that she could get to them.

The sound of the old screen door opening and closing and somewhat unfamiliar foot steps making their way into the kitchen. The hush of voices, male and female, whispering. But what really drew her attention the most was the soft barely audible thudding of a small heart. Curious (and figuring that she could put her nap on hold just long enough to satisfy her curiosity) she got up and silently walked to the door of her room and then slipped out after checking to make sure the coast was clear.

She wasn't sure why but for some reason she couldn't quite put her finger on she was starting to feel like a prisoner of war or something. She'd been gone for so long that she was worried about how well she would and could interact with others now that there were considerably more people on her farm than there had been before she had left to go on her month long run.

Making her way down the stairs to the ground level of the house, she stood there for a second. Again listening to everything in the house as she tracked the sound of the heartbeat to the...right of her. Just across from the kitchen.

 _How did I miss this when I first came home?_ She wondered. Was she really that tired? Or had she simply been that disinterested in the new people?

She didn't understand.

Walking over to the door of the room, she opened it and stepped inside and then closed it as the smell of fresh blood and antiseptic hit her nose. The smell was so strong that it was little wonder it didn't trigger her need to hunt. Thankfully though, it didn't. And even if it had- the kid she found sleeping on the bed in the middle of the room would have been safe since Hershel and the girls knew a bit about her 'condition' and how to counter it's effects to keep her sane.

One was blood. It didn't necessarily have to be fresh- it didn't even have to be human. It could be animal blood or even her own which she had made Hershel take several pints of over the course of the past nine years since they had met when she had still been a kid.

She had made him promise that no matter what happened, he was to always have some of her blood stashed in his home. Or on his person. And when he had told the girls what he knew of her condition, he had made them swear and do the same.

Like wise she had also hidden some away in her home and the underground bunker.

Another way to keep her hunger under control was jerky.

Weird as it might sound aloud to others- it made sense. Because if she could fool her body with blood, then jerky really wasn't as far fetched as it sounded if a body took the time to really sit down and think on it. After all, all it was was the dried up meat of a dead animal. And as long as she had one of those two in abundance during one of her hunger cravings, she felt no need to hunt.

She was a perfectly harmless, and happy little ghoul.

Unless someone tried to take a packet of blood or piece of jerky away from her- and then she'd rip off their arm and watch them bleed out just for fun.

Moving over to the bed where the boy lay, she placed her cool hand against his forehead and leaned down to sniff him. Trying to check and see if he'd been bitten and if so how long he had before he turned. And was once again hit by the almost over powering stench of spilled blood and antiseptic.

He was warm, but not feverish. So that was good.

And she didn't smell any signs of infection in him, so that was good too. But she could smell fresh blood. Not a lot, but enough to bother her sensitive nose a bit. Causing her to have to need to sneeze.

Quickly covering her mouth and nose with one hand, she stood there and waited for the sensation to pass when she heard an upset male voice demand from across the room, "What the hell are you doing to Carl?" Snapping her gaze to the doorway across the room, she met the angry stare of one of the strangers currently residing on her farm without permission.

He was Asian, early twenties, handsome- and so, so very pissed. So much so that he was practically vibrating with anger.

"Nothing." She said as the urge to sneeze finally passed. Which was the honest to god truth. She wasn't doing anything to the kid. Just...checking on him in her own round about way. But Mr. Asian wasn't buying her answer, not by a long shot.

"Don't lie to me," Mr. Asian growled at her as he stepped further into the room and stopped just in front of her- his expression murderous as he glared at her and tried to intimidate her into telling him the truth. " _I. Saw. You. Smell._ _Him_." He bit out from between clenched teeth.

"The kids been in the bed a while and needs a bath and I noticed, so sue me. I didn't do anything wrong- so fuck off." She hissed as the door to the room opened again and Hershel started to come in but stopped when he noticed Ghost and Glenn staring each other down like in those ridiculous old western movies.

Both of them looking as if the slightest thing would set them off.

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Daryl walked back into camp carrying two dead rabbits slung over his left shoulder and feeling more frustrated than he had in a while and was greeted by the sight of his group all having a pow-wow of some sort and the sound of Shane's annoying ass voice, shouting angrily about something.

Curious to see what he'd missed since this morning- he scanned the area until his eyes stopped on the large, brand spankin new looking truck sitting in front of the house and the animal trailers and shit attached to it.

"Wha the hell?" He muttered to himself as he slowed his pace just a little bit to study both his group and then the truck. Wondering if a potential threat had come to call was nothing new to him or the others. Dealing with said potential threat however, was.

"We don't know that kid! She could be dangerous- Hershel himself said as much!" Shane shouted in Rick's face, causing his longtime friend to shake his head before stating.

"Hershel said nothing of the sort. He merely hinted that we should tread carefully around her. And I agree with him. Besides, he said that this was _her_ home. _Her_ land. _She_ gets the final say on whether we stay or not, and if we do brother- we need to follow any and all rules she may have for us. Otherwise we may find ourselves back out there-" Rick pointed towards the woods where Daryl had just come and gave everyone in the group several moments to absorb the information as he took note of Daryl's return and nodded to the hunter.

Daryl nodded back at him just to be polite and set his kills down against the tree where Dale was sitting and squatted down next to the elder of the group and asked in a whispered tone. "Wha's goin on?"

"Stranger came up in the truck earlier and has everyone on edge."

"Just one?"

"Yeah."

"Armed?"

"Not that I could see. But then she wouldn't have to be to lull us all into a false sense of security."

"How so?"

"She's young," Dale said, sounding upset as Rick and Shane continued to argue back and forth. Their voices getting louder and louder. "Barely more than a kid from the look of her. And she was out in that mess all by herself for a while from what I gathered." Dale said, sounding downright outraged now.

Daryl was silent for a moment as he tried to think of what else to ask or say when suddenly he heard Shane all but yell, "I say we drag her out of the damn house and put a bullet in her brain right here and now. Then we won't have to worry about her descison one way or another."

"Goddamn it Shane, how many times have I told you. We don't kill the living!"

"Why the hell not? We could take the farm-"

"Take it from it's rightful owner like a bunch of savages instead of civilized people- no. We're going to do this the right way. We're going to introduce ourselves, talk to her, and hope that she's a far more reasonable person than you are at this moment, brother. I mean, my god, I barely recognize you..." Rick said and was somewhat pained to see the hurt reflected on his best friends face before he quickly masked it and turned and stormed off.

Daryl shook his head as he watched Shane walk away and mused, _He's like a child that's not getting his way._ Before turning his head to eye his two rabbits and sighed. Well hell. He supposed that the meat would keep for a bit longer.

"So when's this dinner party going to start?" He asked absently, not really expecting an answer from anyone when the screen door to the house finally opened and Beth stepped out and yelled.

Dinner!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry for the slow update on this and pretty much everything else.**

 **There was a shooting just several miles from where I live that on Thursday that killed several military officers.**

 **And on top of that my hubby found a solid black male kitten, about eight weeks old, that had been abandoned where he worked. And now we're taking care of little Shadow until we can hopefully find him a good home and it's thrown _my_ home into total chaos because my four other cats can't make up their mind on whether they like him, love him, or just want to kill him. **

**And my hubby is sort of joining the ranks... (I think the cats used some sort of mind control on him)**

 **There's already been three attempts on his little life and my cats currently hate me for interfering. So I'm a little bit frazzled at the moment.**

 **Anyways, here is what I can get out for now. I hope it turns out okay and that ya'll enjoy it. As always, please R &R.**

 **Here we go- (cries)**

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The moment that Hershel thought that Lisa might lose it and go for Glenns throat, he placed himself between her and the young man in an effort to calm things down between them before things escalated and got messy for all of them. Don't get him wrong- He liked Glenn. The boy was decent, honest, kind, hard working... And Lisa was- was royally fucked up from all of what had been done to her back after her family had been murdered.

And she just wasn't the type of person one got up in someone's face about.

She tended to react badly to such aggression. Like really, _really_ badly. Of course the only sort of idea of just how badly she reacted to aggression had happened the day he had met her, he thought as he recalled the incident.

He'd been out in the woods walking and gotten his foot stuck in a bear trap and had broken his ankle when a bear had come along, and having smelled his blood the animal had been salivating heavily at the apparent thought of a fresh kill- and had charged him with the intention of killing and eating him when out of nowhere- in the midst of his panic- something small and pale had appeared and quickly vanished again.

Somehow keeping in step with the large beast, and just when he had thought his number was up and he would never see his wife and kids again- there had been a strange, yet sickening snap, followed by a small spray of crimson that spattered his face and clothing. And then nearly jumped out of his skin as the animal was tossed aside like a rag doll, hitting the ground several feet away from him in a heap of twitching limbs.

Stunned by what had just happened, he turned his head from the bear to look at what had killed it only to see a very strange sight. So strange in fact that he doubted it was even human at first.

It looked human though, his mind argued with him as he caught the gaze of the small girl with the shoulder length white-ish hair and strange golden yellow eyes as she stared back at him and licked some of the blood from one of her tiny hands before her eyes changed color and she sighed then asked, "You okay mister?"

He'd nodded his head mutely and then she had knelt down and pried open the bear trap that he'd been stuck in and applied first aide to his ankle to help him before offering him her hand to get him up off of the ground.

Her gaze shifting from him to the woods every so often as she pulled him to his feet and let him lean heavily on her to keep off of his injured ankle. They had then started a slow, somewhat agonizing trek to where she had been staying at the time.

The place was an old, yet well known in the area, doctor's clinic that had been shut down mysteriously when a bunch of people had 'mysteriously' gone missing. And being an old fixture in town, he had wondered just what the hell a little girl like her had been doing at the place as she had opened the door and easily maneuvered him inside the building and down the hall to the nearest room which had oddly been stocked with surgical supplies.

Needles, IV's, trays, bowls, blood, drugs, knives, saws, gauze and a number of other things some of which still had traces of blood on them. Fresh blood from the way it looked on some of the gleaming metal tools. Helping him over to the closest place to sit and then begun to gather up the things she would need to put a cast on his ankle so that it would heal.

Hershel had thought at first to help her by telling her what she would need. Something to clean the wound, stitch the torn skin, what pain killers to use and how- but he hadn't needed to say anything beyond the first two things as he watched her gather everything up and fix the syringe with the morphine- he had wondered just who this little girl was and how she knew so much about what she was doing.

And for the first year or so of their acquaintance he had merely believed her to be a child genius, sort of like the ones a person would read about or see on TV. But after the third year something had happened to change his opinion of this.

It had been an accident. Just a simple and honest, freak accident.

Hershel and his family had decided to go out on the town to celebrate Maggie getting into collage and he had asked Lisa if she would like to go with them since the kid rarely went anywhere that wasn't within walking distance of her home or the clinic. Figuring that she might appreciate the change of scenery and enjoy socializing a bit, he and his wife and kids- against Lisa's wishes- had loaded her into their car and left her home.

And three hours later, after having a very pleasant dinner and evening... They were run off of the road by a large truck, and their vehicle had crashed through the woods close to Lisa's home. And he had felt his neck snap.

That was all he really recalled of the accident, being fine one moment and the next... dead. And he knew that he had been dead because what happened to him that day was _abnormal_. He had awoken to hear his wife screaming at Lisa to leave. She was a messenger of satan and they didn't want her there.

He had blinked and turned his head, still a bit sore in the neck, his vision swimming a little bit as he took in the scene before him.

Lisa stood there with blood running down her wrist and mouth and chin. The crimson staining the once white shirt that she had worn that day, her eyes were that eerie gold again and her skin looked almost blue as she backed away from his distraught wife and kids and then turned and ran.

And he had never really understood why until his wife and kids had told him that she had done something to him. To fix his broken neck and heal him. It was then that Hershel had come to understand why she held herself apart from others like she did.

It was because she was afraid.

"Glenn, would you please leave Ghost alone."

Glenn shot Hershel a disbelieving look and then snapped, "She sniffed Carl like a dog. So unless there's a damn good explanation for that shit- no." Hershel sighed as Lisa opened her mouth to give Glenn some scathing remark but bit her tongue when she heard one of the girls yell outside.

 _"Dinner!"_


	7. Chapter 7

_"Glenn, would you please leave Ghost alone."_

 _Glenn shot Hershel a glare and snapped, "She sniffed Carl like a dog! So unless there's a damn good explanation for that shit- no." Hershel sighed as Lisa opened her mouth to give Glenn some scathing remark when they all heard one of the girls yell outside,_

 _"Dinner!"_

(************************************************************************************************************************************)

And faster than Hershel could react and nudge Glenn out of the way with his shoulder, Lisa winked at him then pointed and yelled in a tone that would have sounded hysterical to his old ears if he didn't know the girl so well.

"OH MY GOD! AN UNDEAD THINGY! IT'S GOING TO GET US ALL!" Causing Glenn to react by quickly going for his hip where his gun- which had been handed over to Hershel for reasons yet unknown to the young man- had been replaced by a knife as Hershel never took his off of Ghost and watched as she backed slowly and silently away from the Aisan man with the knife in his hand. And quickly slipped out o the room- and the house- via the nearest window before Glenn even turned back around and noticed that she was missing and let out a loud angry oath.

Making Hershel's lips twitch a bit in amusement.

Poor girl. Not even home a day and she was already having to slip out windows to escape people. It would have been really funny if it wasn't so damn sad. But then that was just how things were when there were a lot of people hanging around.

Somebody was bound to step on toes, get into trouble, and slip out the nearest window and disappear.

"What the- Where did-" He started before noticing the once closed window to the room was now wide open and then turned to the elder and growled out, "She slipped out the damn window, didn't she." It wasn't a question, merely a need for confirmation.

"Fraid so. You fell for the oldest and most well used trick in her 'slippery as an eel' book." Hershel said, thinking of the first time she had 'slipped' out of a window on _him_ quite a few times.

He didn't recall all of the specifics of all of those occasions but he recalled one in particular. She had still been fairly young- perhaps about twelve at the time- and had more or less been kidnapped by the women folk of the family to take part in one of their family gatherings.

A reunion of sorts.

And after being bathed, scrubbed from head to toe, half drowned, and dressed in a sky blue knee length dress with god awful pink ribbon trim and being introduced to the family as their 'other' child. Causing a whole slew of problems that none of them had foreseen coming.

Ghost had put up with it all though, for a while. And she had done so with fairly good humor... Until she began to be bombarded with super invasive questions, and upon finally having enough jumped up and yelled out, "OH MY GOD! IT'S ELVIS BACK FROM THE DEAD!"

Which had caused a fair amount of confusion among all of his relatives since almost everyone had looked, expecting to see the king standing somewhere while the little minx piled her plate high with food, grabbed one of the buckets of KFC chicken (extra crispy- his favorite) and had not only made off with the whole damn thing but some slaw and all three things of mashed potato's and a whole pie pan of apple pie that he'd been waiting for all day- again, his favorite.

And she had made good her escape after ditching the dress and running practically naked into the woods.

And even though he was sure that she had done so just to be anti social, he still hadn't forgiven her for that just yet even after all these years. Which was perhaps why he suddenly found himself looking so forward to dinner.

She may be able to escape him. And she may be able to escape Rick's people.

But she wouldn't escape his daughters if she tried to pull an MIA act. Those girls of his may have been raised sweet but they had grown up with twisted personalities and would run her down and drag her to dinner kicking and screaming if he let them.

Oh yes, he was looking forward to this.

(*******************************************************************************************************************)

The moment Lisa was outside, she maneuvered herself around to the kitchen window and peeked inside. Good lord, more than half of the people staying at her home had assembled in the dining room and were already grabbing seats along the long table and plates because apparently no one stood much on ceremony since the world had ended.

Which was perfectly fine by her since she already had a plan to get herself some food and avoid all of the strangers in her home.

I mean, come on.

Just dealing with three or four people that she'd known for years was difficult for her. How the hell did all of those strangers expect her to deal with them?

The answer was not well. Not freaking well at all.

Which was why she was pressing herself so tightly against the house just under the window that one would think that she desired to mesh her spine with the wood as she reached into the window and fished for some dishes. Once she had those, plate, fork, knife- she peeked into the room again to get the layout of the food on the table.

If she was going to do this, she needed to go around the other people...

She was in the middle of figuring out what she would go after and planning how she'd get it when someone stepped between her and her mission. Said person was tall, young-ish, broad shouldered, with shoulder length brown hair. Wearing what looked like a black leather vest with wings on it and dirty and worn jeans.

Making a small sound of appreciation in the back of her throat, she took a moment to check out his rear. Whoever this guy was, he had a nice ass... And as much as she would like to continue staring at it- she had a mission she needed to get back too. So, taking her fork in hand- she reached through the window with it in hand and quickly stabbed the guy in the butt.

Mystery guy jumped and moved around a bit, casting more than one curious glance over both of those shoulders of his before noticing her outside the window and frowning as he turned his body around so that he was facing her and leaned down so that they were eye to eye.

And oh wow, she felt bad for stabbing him in the butt with her fork now. Because he was one hot man. "Hi." She said, sounding more than a little embarrassed.

"Hi." He said in a tentative tone as he wondered if this pretty little waif of a gal was the one that everyone had been talking about earlier.

"Sorry about stabbing you with the fork, but you're sort of in the way of my mission," She said by way of explanation before going on to mention out of the blue, "Nice ass, by the way."

He opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out immediately and so he just shut it again as she plowed on, "You one of the people hoping to stay?" He nodded his head, _yes_ , in response.

"Sorry. I guess that was a bit of a dumb question, huh." He said nothing at first, merely looked at her for a few moments before finally speaking in a soft rumbling voice that sent a thrill down her spine.

"Ain't no dumb questions. Just dumb answers." She grinned at him, her green eyes sparkling with humor as she quickly stated,

"Okay. You wanna stay- well I'd like to eat. Sneak me a bird some fixings and maybe something to drink and you and you're people can stay. Sounds reasonable right." Again he was quiet as he seemed to consider her words before asking in an incredulous tone.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"No take backs?"

She scoffed at his choice of words and wondered just how old she seemed to him before muttering, "Yeah, no take backs." He held his hands out for her plate and waited until it was in his grasp before saying,

"Wait here."


	8. Chapter 8

The second the guy with the hot ass took her plate and begun to move away from the window, Lisa started formulating a plan to better help everyone from the guy's group. From what she'd seen so far, the whole lot of them had been sleeping out doors aside from whomever owned the beat up RV and the little kid.

And as big as her house was...it simply wasn't big enough to provide shelter for everyone without problems arising.

Privacy problems that could lead to the possibility of discovery and potential bullets to the head.

And frankly, that was something she wished to avoid since it hurt like a mother fucker just to regenerate a little bit so that she could function without being mistaken for one of those- those, _horribly_ disgusting things.

So if the new people were to stay she was going to have to pull out all the stops and figure out a way to get them out of the open. Because nothing said 'buffet' to something dead and ravenously hungry like staggering through an area that should have been devoid of life and hearing- *gasp*- heartbeats.

And lots of them.

She sat there with her back pressed against the house, the top of her head just barely reaching the kitchen window. Absently listening to little snippets of conversation here and there as she visualized the layout of her current home and what would be needed for the new guys, in her head.

Her home was an old school southern house that was over a hundred and fifty years old. It had six or seven bedrooms (she said six or seven because one of the rooms was her families old nursery and the room had been sealed off by her after she had come home ten years ago) so she often forgot that room was still there.

Anyways- Aside from those bedrooms, there were three in a half bathrooms, dining room, kitchen, living room (she supposed that she could always go on another run and bring back some mattresses so she could set up a few of them in there) there were five walk in closets big enough to stuff chests full of weapons in- which was what she had done though she doubted anyone knew it yet- there was a large pantry close to the kitchen that if the doors were reinforced could be used to hide in if it became necessary and then there was the wine cellar...

She could talk to the leader of the new people and see about moving everyone into the house for the time being. Just in case something came staggering through. After all- shit happened. And lately she was finding that it happened more and more often.

The last thing she wanted was anyone being killed and turned.

So bringing the new people in was an absolute must- and the sooner the better. Of course letting them stay also meant that she had to tell them something about her 'condition'. Perhaps gather intel on what they thought had started the outbreak, and see if they knew for certain of anyone out there working on a cure and so on.

Shaking her head a little at letting her ADD take over for a moment there, she went back to visualizing floor plans in her head for some add on's to the house. Something that would allow everyone their own room and privacy but also serve as a wall between them and danger.

Which meant that she was going to have to go on another run soon and pick up some materials to work with. Trailers- about five or six- ah one having between two to four rooms, furniture to make them comfortable, and then she would have to start building attachments to the trailers so that if the worst happened and they were attacked- everyone would have a safe way to get from one point to...

She sighed knowing that the only safe escape route would be underground and that she would have to make a few copies of her underground bunker's key so that no one would get stuck or trapped or pinned down. Not only that but she'd have to build a metal building or oak shed or something and stock it with medical supplies just in case someone got severely injured or maimed while she was at it as well.

Sighing again she brought her knees to her chest and let her head drop back so that it thudded against the paneling of the house as she continued to plan things out, completely unaware of the fact that one of the men from the group inside was watching her.


	9. Chapter 9

Rick stood very still as he studied the waif like young woman that Hershel had pointed out- held not only his life, but the lives of his family and group in her dainty little hands. His expression a moment ago had been worried, even somewhat calculating. Until of course he had seen the somewhat sweet and awkward exchange between her and Daryl.

Turns out, the gal wasn't much of a people person. Which he could probably understand a bit more than most given how things had been for him since waking up in the hospital.

But as it turned out she had no problem what so ever with making trades.

Which had worried him at first since he and his group had nothing of real value aside from their weapons to give, if things came to a trade. However his mind was now set a bit more at ease thanks to the fact that the woman had promised to let them all stay in return for some food.

And now that she was waiting for Daryl to return, Rick saw all traces of the slightly simple minded waif's awkwardness and semi playfulness melt away. Leaving behind someone who went over all of the angles, analyzing and calculating chances and probabilities and thinking of inventive new ways to make things better.

Rick's lips quirked slightly in bemusement as he thought of how much he'd hate to ever get on her bad side since he was pretty sure that even now when she was unarmed, she could kick his ass six ways from sunday. Possibly without even trying.

"How long are you going to stand there and stare?" She finally said after a moment, startling him slightly.

"Not long," He replied before moving a bit closer to her and saying, "So you noticed I was here. My ninja skills need a serious brush up."

"Well it wasn't like you were actually blending in with the side of my house. Only I can do that, and it took years of practice to master."

Ricks lips twitched again as he moved to sit down on the porch next to her. "Really? You can actually blend in with the side of the house? How?"

"I color coordinate my clothing to match the houses color. And I use hand made hats and stuff for the rest. I'm Lisa, but my friends call me Ghost." She said suddenly as she stuck her hand out to him. Rick blinked at her for a moment then took her small hand in his and shook it while politely introducing himself.

"I'm Rick. Rick Grimes."

"Well Rick, I'm supposed to talk to you about staying here."

He nodded his head sagely, all traces of earlier amusement fading. "I'd appreciate it if you did."

"What do you want to know exactly?"

"Not one for beating around the bush, huh."

"Not really." Lisa replied in a deadpan tone. "So what do you want to know?"

"Well, for starters- my group and I know that we shouldn't have stayed for so long. But with my son injured we couldn't move on. So to start off, I'm sorry that we all sort of took refuge here while you were away and took advantage of you're home and land and resources..." Lisa looked at him, her eyes seeming to pierce all the way to his soul as she nodded her head, indicating that he and his people were forgiven. "We had no right to do that." Rick continued, "But with the world the way it is now I guess we just got desperate to find a place-"

"You don't have to explain that to me. I understand more than you know, how it feels to be lost and on your own and wish for nothing more than a slice of normal."

"Yeah," Rick muttered with a far off look in his eye. Obviously recalling the way things had been before the military had fucked things up. "So, even though we imposed ourselves on your home and your friends. Would you please let us impose on you a bit longer?"

She nodded her head yes before saying. "I have no problem with you or your people staying. In fact I'm a self taught doctor. And Hershel and the girls will need someone to help keep me out of mischief. And besides, if you can spare three or four guys in the next few days or so- I'll get each of you're people inside and out of the open with your own living space and set up an extra few escape routes just in case something happens and all of us need to get out of here quick."

Rick was silent for a moment before making a humming sound. It sounded like Lisa had figured everything out without needing to really run any plans by him at all. "It sounds like you have everything figured out."

"Not really," Lisa admitted as she began to fidget a little bit with a strand of her hair. "I haven't quite figured out everything." She said as she thought of the cover story's she used to hide her condition. Hershel's knowledge of medicine helped make her covers for her condition seem more real and less threatening.

Rick tilted his head to the side a bit, his expression curious. "Anything I can help with?"

"No. It's nothing that you help with. It's just something that I have to live with...and hopefully when you and you're people find out- you won't mistake me for one of those thingys and shoot me."

He blinked at her, his expression questioning before he said in an unintelligible tone, _"W-What?"_

She blinked owlishly at him and echoed his question, "What?"

(****************************************************************************************************************************)

Hershel sat at the head of the table looking from face to face when he heard Maggie growl in irritation, "Dammit! She ditched us. And after all the trouble I went through cooking everything too."

"Now, now, hon. We all knew that the likelihood of her actually showing up to eat dinner with us was slim. Especially when there's so many people around."

"Daddy's right, Maggie." Beth said as she quietly put some potato salad on her plate and then passed the large glass bowl to whoever was next to her. Which turned out to be Daryl who was eavesdropping a bit while he collected food for himself and the girl hiding out on the porch outside of the kitchen. "Ghost has never really been one for socializing. Besides, after being gone for so long- one of her medical conditions may be about to kick in..."

Maggie opened her mouth to say something but after a moment or so, closed her mouth again and sighed and said, "Damn, I didn't even consider that when I started fixing dinner today. I was just so glad that she was back alive and well after being on her own."

"We know sweetheart. And after dinner I'm sending you girls to hunt her down and drag her to the surgical room in the basement so I can check her out and take care of any of her medical conditions before they kick in. After all the last thing she'd want is to scare anyone and be shot for it." Hershel muttered as he reached out and patted Maggie's hand in his as he glanced over at Daryl who had frozen with the bowl of mashed potato's in his hands, his aqua eyes seeming to stare a hole through the elder as the man stared back, seemingly trying to gauge his reaction to what he had overheard.

(******************************************************************************************************************************)

"Why would any of us shoot you?" Rick asked seriously after a heartbeat or two. His mind working overtime to figure out what she was talking about.

She continued to fidget, her agitation levels rising to the point where she was practically ripping out her hair. Causing him to reach out and take her hand in his and hold it still while he waited patiently for her to reply. "C'mon, talk to me," Rick said coaxingly wanting to understand what was going on in Lisa's head. "I can't help if you don't."

"Can't help. No one can help." Lisa said in a small childlike tone that made Rick frown.

"Try talking to me anyways, you never know." He said, again trying to coax her into talking. But she just shook her head no and tried to pull her hand from his grasp so that she could resume her fidgeting, he assumed. Perhaps she found the action of ripping her hair out somewhat soothing but he found it disturbing and couldn't help but wonder what it was on her mind that was so bad that it warranted ripping her hair out until she was as bald as Brittney Spears had been after her nervous breakdown.

He was about to try coaxing her into talking to him again when they both heard the squeak of the screen door open and then close and the faint sound of footsteps heading towards them. Rick shifted slightly and released Lisa's hand as she shot to her feet the exact moment Daryl came into view carrying a tray piled high with enough food for almost four people. Plus three unopened cherry cokes that he must have pilfered from the fridge in the kitchen.

She moved to take the tray from him, but Daryl shook his head and motioned with his head for her to sit back down. "Hershel figured out that you weren't going to join everyone for dinner today so he and the girls all insisted that I bring you all of this to eat." He said as he dropped down to a kneeling position across from her and set down the tray and grabbed his plate and drink and silver ware and decided to kick back, eat and figure out what sort of medical conditions he'd heard Hershel and the girls had been talking about earlier.

Daryl made himself comfortable and leaned his back against one of the porch railings and settled his plate in his lap as the girl looked over everything that had been brought from the tomato soup with parsley and sour cream in it to the bowl of salad with ranch dressing to the five pieces of chicken, the piece of baked salmon with dill on it, along with the potatos (both the mashed and the potato salad- heavy on the mustard- like she liked it. Or so he'd been told) to the cole slaw and last but not least the dish of brownies, cake and cookies.

Rick looked at everything on the dishes in front of Lisa and jokingly asked, "Wow. Think you can really eat all of that?"

"Give me about ten minutes and you'll see for yourself." She retorted as she picked up the soup bowl and instead of using the spoon that Daryl had brought for her- simply brought the dish to her lips and tipped it back and drank it like it was water or something, making both men stare almost slack jawed in disbelief at her lack of manners since they had expected her to use hers.

Since ya know, she _was_ a woman and all.

However Lisa didn't seem to care much for manners or decorum. She set the empty bowl down and then picked up her salad dish and there for a moment both Rick and Daryl thought she was simply going to toss it back like she had the soup, so they were a mite surprised when she actually took the time to pick up her fork and use it to practically inhale her food.

It didn't even appear like she was even bothering to chew what was in her mouth before she set aside the empty dish and moved on to one of the others, this time going through her mashed potato's and potato salad with the barest minimum of jaw movement before moving on to the chicken and practically inhaling it in what seemed like 0.02 seconds flat before moving on to the fish.

This time she simply stuffed as much as possible of it into her mouth and then tipped her head back like a raptor from one of the Jurassic Park movies and swallowed the bite whole before repeating the process two more times and then snagging a soda and opening it so that she could take a few drinks and glanced from Rick to Daryl then looked away feeling a little bit embarrassed by her lack of manners.

But in all honesty she had been absolutely starving and they were lucky that she hadn't decided to gnaw on someone's leg or something just yet. Besides, how would she explain to them just why she was inhaling her food and how having something in her stomach now kept her from possibly hurting someone.

She doubted they'd understand. Hell, even she didn't totally understand. But she was wary enough and had enough info to go on to know what worked and why.

"Sorry. I was really hungry..."

The two men took a moment or so to recover their ability to think and speak before Rick shook his head and said, "Obviously."


	10. Chapter 10

Daryl was silent for a moment, wondering how to broach the subject of Ghost's medical condition/condition's in front of Rick when he suddenly decided that being tactful was a waste of time.

The more information they had about her- the better off everyone would be and so as he took a small, measured bite of his food asked, "I bet you probably needed the vitamins and nutrients in the foods you were given more than you let on cause of your medical condition. Didn't ya?"

Rick blinked and looked at him then back at the girl next to him as she slowly lowered the soda that she had been steadily draining 'vampire style' as she liked to call it since it entailed chewing on a full and unopened coke can of soda like a deranged goat or something in an effort to keep the small fangs hidden behind her regular teeth, sharp.

Setting her partially drained drink down she gave 'hottie' as she had dubbed him in her mind, a schooled look. Masking her thoughts and feelings again. As she mentally thought about stabbing him in the leg with her unused spoon as she said, "I don't know what you're talking about." While she picked up the last soda and opened her mouth gave a funny theatrical 'vampire' hiss and bit into the side of the can and tipped her head back, her throat as she swallowed.

Daryl made a humming sound that Rick recognized as his 'bullshit' hum. The only hum in the archers vocabulary that practically spoke for itself. And he only used it when he knew someone was lying to him.

Deciding to do a little poking himself, Rick asked, "What about what you mentioned earlier?"

Lisa turned her head to look at him. Her eyes slightly wider then they had been a moment ago, her expression innocent as she reached up and carefully extracted the soda can from her mouth to ask, "What about earlier?"

Rick gave her a bemused look for a moment, thinking that she must be playing with him or something as he said, "You mentioned something about not wanting to be mistaken for a walker and shot." Shooting Daryl a look, the archer nodded his head. Indicating that he was all ears.

"Walker? Never heard em called that. I just call em thingys." She was dancing around the topic, Rick noted. Either that or she just didn't feel like answering his and Daryl's questions. He was about to ask her again what she had meant earlier when she reached out and absently placed her small hand over his mouth to silence him then motioned for Daryl to be quiet and then tipped her head back and sniffed at the air and swore as she jumped to her feet so that she could scan the immediate area in front of the house.

Walkers- Five of them. Each one in various states of decay, were in the far field of the property staggering through the woods and making their unsteady way towards the house. Likely drawn there by the cattle, pigs and so on that they hadn't eaten just yet.

"Son of a bitch." She hissed as she reached down and grabbed both Rick and Daryl and hauled the two men (shocking them more than mere words could say) to their feet and quickly maneuvered them to the front door even as they protested.

Opening the front door, she quickly shoved them into the house then went to get momma cat and the kittens. She was on her way back when Hershel met her at the door with several of the others, everyone's expression varying from anger, to anxious, to concern.

No doubt wondering if they were safe on her farm after all. And she couldn't blame them for thinking that. Up until now 'walkers' weren't a regular occurrence on the farm. They mostly tended to steer clear of her domain. And the fact that these five weren't could only mean two things.

1) They were too freshly dead to know not to cross her.

And 2) Her deepest fear, their hunger was overriding what common sense they had.

"Ghost? Lisa...let some of us go with you." Rick said, his tone panicked as she looked at him and shook her head no.

"No. Stay inside. If anything happens, give these people back their guns and have Maggie take you to the bunker. There's food, electricity, animals for slaughter, water, military grade rations, medicines and weapons. There are escape tunnels that will take you three miles from here where there are vehicles equipped with beds, supplies, weapons, more military rations..." She felt someone reach out and take her hand and realized that she'd been rambling and during the time she had wasted rambling the walkers had drawn much closer to the house.

Squeezing the hand holding hers, she looked at Hershel and gave him a wane smile and then slipped her hand free and gave her last set of instructions. "Have the surgery room prepped and two bags of blood and three of plasma. Bandages. Drugs, needles, knives- everything I'm going to need to remove teeth, skin and muscle."

Hershel nodded his head and took the cats from her. "I'll have everything ready."

"Okay, looks like momma's going hunting." She said as she stepped back a few paces as her eyes turned gold and her entire appearance changed into something otherworldly.

She looked like something out of a Sci-Fi movie really, Rick thought as he gaped at her. She looked both beautiful and terrifying all at once. Like something he'd seen in a zombie B-movie once.

The zombie queen personified in living form instead of some geeks fantasy.

She let out a loud furious scream that made everyone flinch even as it died down to a low rumbling growl as the walkers reached the second fence causing them to pause for a moment almost as if they were considering turning around and stumbling away. But that was a crazy concept. Much like the concept of a zombie queen.

The walkers were still for a moment or so and then started forward again, apparently determined to devour some new flesh. Lips curled back from her fangs as they lengthened and started forward, her body moving on auto pilot as she walked down the porch steps and moved with purposeful strides down the driveway to where the walkers were and then struck.


	11. Chapter 11

It was as if time slowed to a snails pace as Rick heard Lori say, "Oh my god, she's practically one of them." In a scared and horrified tone as Lisa used her bare hands to rip the head off of the first walker, foolishly giving her back to two of the others- one of whom had managed to get in close enough to manage to take a small nibble, if one could call having her fist put through it's gaping mouth and forced through the back of it's skull, a nibble as it too went the way of the first.

But not before leaving behind a nice long, bloody scrape along with a couple of teeth embedded in one of her knuckles.

Dropping both bodies, she then made quick work of the others. Ripping their heads from their bodies and crushing their skulls with one of her feet to fully destroy them before turning her attention fully to clean up duty. She needed to dispose of the bodies before animals got a hold of them. Or some other thingys came and stampeded her home.

But first thing was first, two of the bodies smelled fresh. As in they had been dead for only a short time before coming to her home. Which made them perfect for harvesting organs. However, she thought with a quick glance towards the house at the people standing on the porch and just inside the front door- staring at her with a certain mixture of fear, horror, wariness and trepidation causing her to sigh.

Harvesting the organs would have to come later. Until then to prevent any more damage and decay she would have to put the bodies on ice down in the bunker.

Right now she imagined her guests had a lot of questions. And she wasn't exactly sure if she should answer them all. Much less _how_ to answer them. After all, it wasn't like she knew everything either. Most of what she had learned about everything so far had been a series of trial and error and really good educated guesses.

Leaning down she picked up both of the bodies she'd be surgically tearing into later on and slung one over one of her shoulders and decided to drag the other along behind her like some sick parody of a rag doll as she started back towards the house.

She reached the porch and looked up at everyone for a second. Taking note in how some stared at her in disgust while others cowered behind Rick, Hottie, and some crazy looking guy with short black hair and stubble along his jaw. Her eyes flickered down to the man's hand which was resting lightly on the knife at his hip and then looked back to his face.

He had this peculiar look in his icy blue eyes that reminded her of other survivors that she had met. Survivors that had turned out to have lost their minds after all that they had seen and lost and done and had had to be put down like rabid dogs.

And she knew without a doubt that the second she turned her back on him- he would attack her with the intention of killing her.

Maggie came down the porch steps with Beth, one carrying a rag for the scrape on her hand and the other carrying a small first aid kit. "Ghost, look at you're hand!" Beth said as she moved to dab at Lisa's hand with the towel she held. Lisa carefully placed both headless corpses on the ground and then held up one finger to stop the girl from touching her just yet.

Beth and Maggie both stopped moving towards her as she pulled the teeth that one of the walkers had left imbedded in her hand, out of her flesh and then let herself return to normal.

The color of her eyes changing back to green and her skin taking on it's normal healthy peach colored hue instead of the sickly, dead-ish, chalky white that made her appear almost like a ghoul. Once that was done she held her arm out to the girls, a silent invitation to them to get closer to her.

And instead of having them tend to her like they normally would, she simply took the rag and first aid kit from them both and dropped down to the ground with her legs crossed indian style and quietly begun to work on cleaning and bandaging her hand by herself as Hershel came down the steps at an agonizingly slow pace and headed towards where she sat.

Obviously the man was just as curious and worried (if not more so) than everyone else was.

Moving to stand in front of her, he stared down at her for a moment with a frown on his face before saying in a gentle tone, "Lisa. Honey, I think we need to have a talk." Causing her to pause wrapping her hand and look up at him with wide green eyes as she slowly took the gauze between her teeth to tear it so that she could tie it off and looked away, her shoulders slumping a little bit as she finished and quickly put everything back into the first aid kit and then closed it and said.

"Sure. Might as well call a meeting. Gather everyone in the kitchen and give me a few minutes to do something with those two bodies I dragged up here and to wash my hands and face." After all, one or two of those corpses had been ripe enough to splatter her nice clean self with blood, goop and a bunch of other disgusting things.

Come to think of it- "Actually let me amend that request. I feel the need to shower again." Hershel nodded in understanding and reached out and picked up the kit and stood up again and he, and the girls all turned to go gather up everyone else.


	12. Chapter 12, the talk pt 1

Lisa pulled a clean, mint colored sweater over her head as she stared at the concrete floor of the locker room across and down the hall just a bit from the medical supply room and freezer where she had stored the two bodies from earlier.

Pulling the overly large sweater down over her hips until the hem covered the white spandex shorts she was wearing over her panties and then pulled her damp white-ish hair out of the collar of her shirt as she tried to think of how the upcoming talk was going to go.

She was feeling a tad bit optimistic after her semi nice shower so she'd bet it was going to go about as well as the Hindenburg crash. Or possibly as well as the sinking of the Titanic.

It was all villagers with pitchforks and torches to her.

Either way she was still feeling a little bit optimistic at the moment as she thought over everything that would possibly need to be covered during the talk she was going to have with... _everyone_...

Ugh.

There was so much subject matter to cover that she was starting to get a headache from just thinking about it.

From the outbreak source (her family's fault, sorry humanity) to the way it spread (the real way) to the military conducting experiments on her for several years until she grew into her abilities and became stronger, to her escape and return home where she started to prepare for the inevitable.

Again, sorry humanity, but the whole outbreak never would have happened if her family hadn't been killed by the military since the various medical illnesses and such carried in their blood had mutated over the past several hundred years and upon the execution of her kin had mutated again.

Causing the fall of the human race as a whole in less than six months.

Which while impressive, was also scary as hell.

Mutated illnesses and diseases should _not_ be so potent. But thankfully since she'd had the past ten years to be paranoid and use her time to prepare for what was coming, she had learned some interesting things about herself as well as the thingys Rick had dubbed 'walkers'.

1) There was no true known cure against the epidemic. Not unless someone was like her. But they had to be born to her families bloodline specifically. (Sorry people)

2) While there was no known true cure- there were ways around turning for those who got bitten and scratched and became infected. But it had to happen within a certain time frame and her blood and the venom her small fangs produced was needed.

This was absolute since the both acted as a temporary inoculation against the infection. Temporarily changing the infected person into a semi being like her thus giving them enough time to heal.

But it only lasted a day or so at the most. Tops.

She knew from personal experience because of an incident that took place once when she was still a kid, shortly after her escape from the military facility. She had been about fifty or so miles from home, passing through some town she couldn't even recall the name of and she'd come across a bad car wreck.

The vehicle had been nothing but smoking, bloodied and twisted metal wrapped around a tree with a family of four in it. She had walked up to it and looked inside to see it there were any survivors. There had been. An injured man and two kids between the age of seven and one year.

They'd all been badly hurt.

And despite wanting to go home, she had known that she couldn't just leave them there to slowly die. It wouldn't have been right. So she had gripped the twisted metal of the nearest door- ignoring the burning sting of the hot metal in her grasp- she ripped it from what was left of the hinges.

And carefully pulled the children out first before going to get the man and pulling him from the car and carrying him on her back a good seventy feet or so away from the destroyed vehicle so that once the flames finally reached the gas tank and the car blew none of them would be anywhere near it.

Once she settled the man on the ground next to the kids, she took a moment to go over their injuries. The man had several shattered bones, ruptured organs and was bleeding out internally. Where as the oldest of the two kids was suffering from a brain bleed and a punctured lung. And the infant...

He was in the worst shape.

He wasn't breathing. His heart was slowing to a crawl- His small body twitching in it's death throes as she quickly pulled the back pack that she had kept on her to carry the few things she needed plus the medical supplies that she had stolen from the military base before leaving. Including several vials of her venom and a few bags of her blood, from her back and dug through it until she had two bottles of venom laid out along with four bags of blood and five needles.

Staring up two IV's, one for the man and another for the oldest kid, she then hooked each of them up with a bag of blood and then fixed three needles of venom and quickly jabbed one of them into the infant's chest.

Injecting the healing agent straight into it's heart and then carefully with drew the needle from it's chest and took a moment to gently do compresses on it's chest with the flat of one hand to keep it's heart going.

She'd need the venom to circulate completely if it was going to work. While using her free hand to give the man and eldest child both their dose of the venom. Hoping that by sharing her blood and venom with them that she was doing the right thing instead of making a horrible, horrible mistake.

After all, she wasn't entirely sure just how her venom worked at the moment. But she was sure that it had something to do with blood. Which was why once the baby began to breathe again, just to be on the safe side of things, she took a small syringe and filled it with some of her blood from one of the plastic bags and gave the baby a nice healthy shot of it to equalize, and perhaps neutralize any ill effects going on inside of his body due to the venom.

Luckily she hadn't been wrong about what her blood and venom together could do.

She had saved three innocent people. And the act alone had been amazing and had even given her some hope that perhaps something good could come of her childhood tragedy and loss.

Thinking back on everything she felt that day, she sort of felt like a dumbass for thinking that anything good would come of what had happened to her and her family. But no- she and her family were more or less single handedly at fault for the fall of the entire human race.

Passing by a mirror as she began to make her way out of the locker, she paused to look at herself for a second. But just a second before she was forced to look away and quickly made a beeline for the nearest bathroom where she fell to her knees in front of the toilet and vomited up practically everything that she had eaten earlier before finally stopping and sitting back on her heels coughing and wiping at her mouth.

 _Shit._ That shouldn't have happened, but sometimes when she looked at herself in the mirror she felt such an overwhelming urge to get sick.

Because of who she was. What she was. And what she knew she was responsible for.

And because it was times like that when she truly, truly hated herself.


	13. Chapter 13, the talk pt 2

**My bad-**

 **(*************************************************************************************************************)**

"Rick we can't stay here," Shane started to say again, the tone of his voice the same tone he used when negotiating. However he was quickly becoming frustrated with Ricks stubbornness. Especially since everyone in the group was freaking out. "You saw her- You saw that- that _thing_. She isn't human. She isn't safe."

"Shut up Shane," Rick snapped after a moment or so before saying heatedly, his own frustrations getting the best of him. "I don't want to hear it. This place is the safest we have come across. It's distant from towns, cities and roads. We have plenty of food sources to support us- And whoever that little gal is, she obviously protects Hershel and the others and takes care of shit to keep them from getting infected. Now be quiet, I want to hear everything Lisa has to say." Rick said as the front door finally opened after almost forty five minutes.

And the person of interest stepped through the door wearing what looked like a clean mint colored sweater dress that almost reached her knees, her pale hair hanging around her face and down her back in damp strings. Closing the door behind her, she moved quietly towards the dining room where everyone was gathered and paused when everyone shifted to the side to get out of her way, and stared at her.

 _Hard_.

Causing her already queasy stomach to become even more queasy as she thought, _Okay optimism, do your thing._

"Um. Hi." She said in a slightly uncertain tone as she gave everyone a small smile and finger wiggle in greeting. No one from the new group said anything. Which wasn't terribly encouraging to her until Maggie got up out of her seat at the table and motioned for her to come further into the room where everyone from the new group could really see her as she pulled the chair next to her father out for Lisa to sit in while she talked to everyone.

Glancing down at her bare feet, Lisa slowly shuffled her way into the room. Thankfully without bumping into anyone since she doubted that she would appreciate being shoved, hit or worse at the moment and upon finally reaching her seat, sat down in it and took several nervous breaths.

Her hands were starting to sweat, causing her to fidget with her fingers.

Seeing how nervous she had become, Hershel reached out and placed a hand on top of one of hers. Stilling her fidgeting as he said, "Whenever you're ready, hon."

Lisa nodded and felt her mouth start to go dry and looked towards the fridge. God what she wouldn't do for a drink or two right now. Especially considering how long this talk was going to take.

Finally after a moment or so, she seemed to calm herself enough to speak and opened her mouth and said, "Okay. My name is Lisa, nickname, Ghost for more than obvious reasons," She pointed to herself, indicating her appearance before continuing on. "I know that all of you have questions and are scared. Frankly I don't blame you. So lets start at the beginning. What do all of you know so far about the epidemic that's wiped out basically every living person in the world?"

Rick was the one who answered, "We were told that the epidemic was viral. Air born. Some sort of weaponised pathogen that mysteriously got loose."

"Who told you all that?"

"Some guy we met a month or so back at the DCC."

She was silent for a moment or so. Mentally weighing the pros and cons of telling everyone in the room the truth here then went on to say, "Yeah well- the guy didn't know what he was talking about. Aside from the epidemic somehow being air born, everything else is basically bullshit."

Rick did this funny little head tilt that reminded Lisa of a bird spotting prey. Not to mention the looks she was getting from Hottie and Crazy at the moment. And it made her want to inwardly cringe as Crazy demanded in a challenging tone, "Oh? And just what the hell would you know about it?"

Lisa thinned her lips for a moment in an effort to bite back the scathing remark she was just _dying_ to heap upon Crazy's head right then. "I know that this epidemic was an accident a long time in the making."

Rick, Hottie and several others gave her a curious look, waiting for her to go on before she said, "It's basically the result of a domino effect of occurrences that span back at least two hundred years. And when I say two hundred years- I literally mean two hundred years. It's a lethal combination of illnesses and fatal diseases all meshed together in _one_ specific bloodline, and given scores of years to cultivate, blend, and mutate."

"Hold- Hold up a second. Your saying that everything that's happened so far is all because of a family? Everything we knew is gone and it's all because of a family. Seriously?" Glenn said in an outraged tone that earned him a dark look from Lisa. Causing him to fall silent again as Rick said gently,

"Please, anything you know about this- this illness or disease. Anything you can tell us that may help us survive, please do."

"Are all of you sure that you wanna hear this? Cause I'm telling you right now it may be better, at least for many of you, for right now- if you didn't."

"Is that you're way of saying we shouldn't bother asking for answers from you?" Crazy practically growled at her causing Lisa to bare her fangs at him and growl right back, not realizing at the moment that she had changed back to her pale deathly other self and was slowly rising from her chair in a menacing manner.

"No. It's my way of trying to spare some of you right now because of just how much you've been through. And FYI ass hat, you are in _my_ home a little respect would be nice. And also if you interrupt me again- and I'm throwing you outside with the rest of the animals. _Now shut_ _the hell_ _up_."

Crazy stepped back away from the table and her, not really stopping until he had Hottie between himself and her. What a fucking prince. Lisa thought as she glanced at Hottie and the others and sighed as she slowly let herself change back to normal. Gauging from a lot of people's reactions to the immediate change in her appearance and such- many were scared shitless and none too happy with her right then.

Hanging her head slightly she muttered, "Sorry," As her eyes teared up a bit and she dug her fingernails into the wood of the dinning room table, leaving little furrows behind in her anxiousness as she went on to explain. "Sorry. I didn't mean to change like that. But the change happens when I'm mostly upset. Anger, fear, worry- any of these things if extreme enough trigger the change in me which makes it like a double edged sword. Easy to use to protect and defend myself and others, but not so great with making new friends..."

No one said anything.

Honestly what could they say. She creeped them out. That some of them were scared she would change and attack them.

These were legitimate concerns. All of which they would have to address eventually, but right now they needed to know what she knew and find out how she got the way she was. And maybe by doing so they could figure out if there were more people like her or perhaps even a cure.


	14. Chapter 14, the talk pt 3

There was an uncomfortable silence for several heartbeats before Lisa sighed and tried starting up the talk again, "First off, I have to tell you straight up- there is _no_ cure for this epidemic. There is no true possible chance at one unless you have the right materials. Plasma; from a living infected from the bloodline I mentioned earlier. Blood. And several types of tissue. Brain tissue for starters. Then lung. Intestines. Stomach..." She stopped talking for a moment and looked around at everyone's faces.

Hershel and the girls aside, the others were keeping their thoughts to themselves. Each was wearing a poker face that made it difficult to read them. _Difficult_ , but not impossible.

"Do you get the picture? Do you understand?" She asked with a slight tilt of her head.

Everyone in the room was maintaining their silence for now. Possibly trying to wrap their heads around what she had just said. Maybe. But because she couldn't tell if they really understood what she was saying, much less paying any attention- she begun to wonder if perhaps she should just hand over the medical files and recordings that she had stolen from the military upon her escape.

Only trouble was, if she did, they would know the extent of experimentation and tests done on her as a child. Not only that but she would be outed as the last of her families bloodline.

The people responsible for ripping the world they knew away from them and taking all of their family and friends from them. And though she was a bit smarter than average, she had no idea how knowing that would go over. But she was betting, not well. Not well at all.

The situation was quickly becoming something sort of like Frankenstein's monster and his deeply rooted terror of fire and all things that could burn him to death...

And the more she thought about it, the more it all made her head spin until-

"Go on Lisa," Hershel encouraged her, obviously just as curious if not more so than everyone else in the room. "Finish telling us what you know."

"As I was saying before, the origins of the initial outbreak was due to a very specific bloodline riddled with disease, illness and over the course of the past two hundred years- mutations. There is a little bit of everything ranging from scarlet fever, smallpox, to a mutated strain of rabies, Porphyric Hemophilia," A lot of people gave her a funny look. Apparently having never heard of the rare genetic disorder that attacked the brain and made one believe that they would perish unless they drank blood. "Hershel please explain to them about that last one."

The elder took several minutes to cover what Porphyric Hemophilia was and what it did to a person medically before she begun speaking again.

"And a few other things that can be spread like a plague... Which would probably explain a lot about how it's spread from person to person. Aside from being air born, I learned a little while back- before the outbreak got out of control- that the scratches and bites originally have very little to do with actually passing on the infection. I did however learn that each of the thingys, the 'walkers', as you call them- each have a second row of teeth hidden behind the first."

"Upon first turning, the second row of teeth begins to develop and grow in behind the originals along with a small set of fangs no bigger that the human canine that upon attacking one of the living for supposed consumption, descends to not just rip a hunk of flesh out of you, but also to inject a venom like substance which is actually what turns you into one of them."

"And because the use of venom is...well, used- They tend to go for part of the body littered with arteries and veins. So that the venom will travel through the body quicker. Which is sort of brilliant for something that sort of has the higher brain function of a pea if you really think about it." Lisa rambled a little bit with a frown. Not really noticing the looks of anger and outrage she was getting from various people around the room while Hottie and Rick both just seemed to quietly absorb the info she was giving them before Rick dared to ask,

"As interesting as it is to know all that stuff- How exactly did you come across it? Did you catch one? Dissect it? How?"

Lisa looked up at them and started to open her mouth to say that she belonged to the family that had started the outbreak, but the second she caught the mad look in Crazies eyes and thought better of it and automatically replied, "Sure. Let's go with that."

"So before the initial outbreak occurred, what exactly were you doing? Aside from gathering information, that is." Rick asked curiously causing Lisa to automatically point to Hershel before saying,

"When I was a little kid, I once lived here. Then some very bad people came and killed my family. I suffered severe wounds while trying to escape," Hershel and the girls looked at her, all of them wondering why this was the first they were hearing of such things pertaining to her childhood. "I was shot in both of my knees, and three times in my mid and lower spine in an effort for the really bad guys to keep me from running away while they kidnapped me. I then spent a great deal of time after I healed in captivity in an former military base run by fanatics who used me in experiments and such... I think they had actual military connections at some point and some black market connections too because they had a lot of stuff that normal fanatics wouldn't have."

"I was with them until I was about ten or so and started to grow into my abilities. At the same time, they wanted to try a 'fun' new experiment with me. They wanted to see if it was possible to breed me, a living human, with a newly turned walker-" Everyone in the room looked at her, horrified. Especially Hershel and the girls.

And she couldn't help but think, _Oh Hershel. If only I could spare you and the girls this knowledge._ As well as all other knowledge.

Several moments passed before a very, _very_ hesitant Maggie asked in a trembling tone, "H-How exactly were they planning to breed you with one of those things?"

"W-Well since I'm different from everyone else- My blood carries with it great potential..." Everyone stared at her and waited with bated breath to hear how exactly her poisonous blood could have been considered useful. "Because along with what you've seen so far, it was also discovered that I carry a way to regenerate dead and dying cells and that could mean a cure for just about any and every known illness and disease known to us so far. And they were hoping that by breeding me, I would somehow pass some of that along to my offspring since it was determined that I'm far more likely to birth a living, breathing child than a dead zombie thingy."

"So they waited until I had my first- and was ovulating- and they chained me to a wall and gathered five freashly turned walkers and they put them all in the room with me to see if anything would happen." Hershel covered his mouth with one hand, trying to hold back the bile at the mere thought of his adopted daughter being put in chains as a child and being forced to breed with something already dead. Especially dead things that were dangerous and went around killing people.

"So... What happened?" An elderly man among Rick's group asked curiously.

"Well, first of all- any people in here with weak stomachs?" Lisa asked as her eyes scanned the crowd of faces in her dinning room. And when after a moment or so only one or two people put their hands up Lisa pointed to the door. "Then you should leave for now. Anything of relevancy will be told to you later by one of you're friends if you ask. But things are about to go above and beyond messy- And there will be blood and gore the likes of which none of you may be able to get out of your heads after this. So if you have a weak stomach, leave now... Believe me, I wish that I could-"


	15. Chapter 15

**Hello everyone, I'm sorry for not updating this sooner.**

 **Especially with Halloween and all, but I haven't exactly been updating or writing much of anything lately due to family issues, stress, and my wedding anniversary which was on Halloween.**

 **So without further ado, here is the next chapter.**

(********************************************************************************************************************************)

Several days later-

Lisa was sitting in a large tree a little ways from the house and everyone else. Exactly where she had been ever since she had finished her talk a little over four days ago. Her eyes staring blankly ahead, out across the fields. Seeing and yet not seeing as her mind replayed every moment.

It had been humiliating.

Giving the people the dirty little details of her 'breeding' process and how the walkers put in the room with her had gone into a frenzy and ripped each other apart just to reach her and mount her like she were some animal in season. And more than once had to be excused as she would catch a look of disgust from one of the people in the room and suddenly feel the need to vomit.

However since she wasn't done speaking, she always had to return. And the first time she did, she caught Hershel and the girls huddled together just outside of the dining room... The scent of their tears making her wish that she had never had to say anything at all as she stood there for a moment in silence, wanting more than anything for her adopted family to turn and look at her and tell her that everything would be fine even after this.

But none of them ever did. So she had silently returned to her chair in the dining room and hollowly finished going over everything after what happened when she was bred.

Her attack on the people holding her prisoner, killing a few and unleashing them on the unsuspecting people of the base while she went through it and systematically erased all traces of herself and their experiments on her and taking back her blood, and other things and stuffing it all in a backpack with some military rations and water and escaping into the night.

She spoke of how she walked, day and night, hoping to return home and find at least one or two people had escaped the slaughter aside from her. But knew that if they had- the military had likely experimented on them and killed them by that point.

She spoke of how the first few weeks (she said weeks because she got turned around a time or two by accident) on the road were difficult for her due to her age.

She told them that she was still technically in shock about being bred and had suffered a great and terrible trauma due to which she steered clear of any other humans and at one point had befriended a little squirrel that she had named Ribbit and had spoke often to the little critter until one day Ribbit got eaten by a hawk. And while she had stood under the tree the large bird had made it's home in, eating her friend, she had come to realize something important.

The sight of her friend's blood made her feel funny.

Her stomach cramped like she was hungry, but when she tried eating some of her rations- she threw up _violently_ and was unable to eat for several days. She began to run a high fever later that day and collapsed in the woods where she lay drifting in and out of consciousness for about three days before finally, something peculiar had happened.

A rabbit was eating some grass just a few yards from her and suddenly she managed to force herself awake and grabbed it and while she hated what she was about to do, began eating it alive. The sweet taste of it's blood somehow making her feel better.

Afterwards, her fever had broke and she had realized that she was more like walkers than even she suspected. She did hunger like they did, however, she sated that hunger by different means so that she would never attack a human.

And even though she told Rick and his people this, she doubted any of them believed her.

Eventually though the talk ended and she asked if anyone had questions for her. The only real question, hadn't really been a question but more of a frightened/spiteful remark meant to hurt her. And hurt her, it had as Ricks wife had stared her down just like Crazy Eyes was doing and spat out, "Why didn't you kill yourself?"

To which Lisa had given the woman a sadistic smirk and slowly pushed her chair back away from the table and walked over to the woman and had stopped in front of her and lifted a hand to her hair and used it to push the pale strands back to show an old scar from a series of gunshot wounds to her skull.

And as the woman and Rick and Hottie got a good gander of the small cluster of scars from bullet wounds and she muttered only so loud so that they could hear her, "Why indeed." After which she had swept out of the room and the house like her nickname sake, a ghost.

After which she had taken to spending a great deal of her time alternating between running through the woods, hunting, and taking up her place in the massive tree out in the yard, a good distance from the house, on her favorite limb.

Where she spent more time watching anything and everything. After all there wasn't much else she could do now in the way of socializing now that everyone knew her sorted past and was taking great pains to steer clear of her.

Well, everyone but Rick, Maggie, Hershel and Hottie of course.

Hershel and Maggie for the obvious reasons- they thought of her as family and that obviously didn't hadn't changed since they didn't fault her for what had happened to her as a child. While Rick and Mr. Hottie were a little harder for her to figure out.

But every time she spaced out, whatever was occupying her mind was interrupted by Rick yelling up at her to come down. And while Mr. Hottie said nothing, she always felt his eyes on her. Regardless of what she was doing, those pretty eyes of his just seemed to burn into her.

Sending shivers of... _something_ down her spine as she glanced down at the two men to find them standing directly under her tree limb with their heads tilted back on their shoulders.

(******************************************************************************************************************)

Daryl stared up at the limb that the waif had claimed since the other night and narrowed his eyes slightly at the hurt he could practically _feel_ radiating from the young woman as Rick continued to try and coax her down.

And despite knowing that she was probably going to ignore Ricks attempts- Especially after the second pow-wow everyone had had about whether or not they should stay, Daryl remained quiet knowing that his gut instinct about the girl was right on the mark.

And as such, that made her one of them now, and no matter how much some of the others couldn't stand it- they didn't abandon their own.


	16. Chapter 16

Daryl stared up at the limb that the waif had claimed since the other night and narrowed his eyes slightly at the hurt he could practically _feel_ radiating from the young woman as Rick continued to try and coax her down.

And despite knowing that she was probably going to ignore Ricks attempts- Especially after the second pow-wow everyone had had about whether or not they should stay, Daryl remained quiet knowing that his gut instinct about the girl was right on the mark.

And as such, that made her one of them now, and no matter how much some of the others couldn't stand it- they didn't abandon their own.

(********************************************************************************************************************************************)

 _Two days ago-_

 _"We should leave here." Lori said as she stared into the camp fire, not bothering to raise her eyes to look at her husband before continuing, "When Carl is healthy enough, we should see about getting some extra weapons and supplies and leaving."_

 _Rick couldn't believe what he was hearing. He knew his wife and some of the others were scared- hell even he was still trying to sort everything in his head out, but he wasn't so scared or stupid as to think that they could actually take their chances out there._

 _Even with extra weapons and food. That would only buy them a little more time before they once again had to resort to scrounging around and running for their lives._

 _And frankly he didn't want that for anyone sitting around the fire. Especially not the elderly, or his wife and young son. Or even Shane, despite the fact that he had practically begged Rick to find a way to get the girl and smash her skull and then destroy her body so that she couldn't find a way to come back._

 _All of which Rick had vehemently denied and turned around and threatened everyone in the group to make sure that they understood... Lisa was hands off._

 _If he certainly wasn't going to murder what he regarded as an innocent girl for something she had never asked for nor wanted. Then neither was anyone else. As far as he was concerned, despite her differences, she was still a person. That much had been made painfully obvious to him, other wise she would have forced them to leave already._

 _Among other things._

 _The front door to the house opened and Rick heard the unmistakable sounds of Hershel coming down the squeaky porch steps and quietly heading towards them. Apparently curious about what they were doing around a bond fire so late at night._

 _"Rick," He said as he came to a stop next to him and nodded his head at him politely. "Folks. Everything alright?" Hershel asked somewhat hesitantly, already knowing the answer._

 _That many of these people now viewed his adopted daughter as a monster-_

 _(*******************************************************************************************************************************************)_

"Come on down and join us," Rick said in a gentle tone knowing that Lisa could hear him no matter the tone or pitch of his voice. "Daryl and I are going to the apple orchard to collect some of the apples for Maggie and Beth. I heard talk of apple dumplings, pie, and even jams and dried apple chips. You game? We could use the extra hands."

 _Plus it would be_ _nice to have someone watching their backs while we work_ , Rick thought to himself as he saw Lisa shift slightly on her tree limb and peer down at them for a long silent moment before sighing and saying loud enough for him to hear.

"You're never going to leave me alone, are you?" Her soft voice was full of strain, a sure indication that she was tired. He still grinned though, knowing in that instant that his daily pestering's had finally gotten to her and he had won.

She would finally be coming down from her lofty perch and rejoining human kind for a bit.

Keeping his eyes on her, Daryl waited patiently next to Rick as she jumped down out of the tree and landed gracefully, if a little roughly, just a few inches from them and straightened her spine as Rick held out a basket for her to put her apples in and watched as she hesitated for a moment or so and cocked his head as he was struck with the strangest thought- this waif, this woman/child for all her power and terrifying ability- didn't know how to handle simple humans like them.

Sure she provided a safe haven, game to eat and hunt, clothing, medicine that at that very moment was being used to help Rick's son Carl heal much faster- but despite all of that, she felt emotionally lost. Adrift in deep and shark infested waters.

One mistake would see her bitten in half. And she knew it.

Yet despite knowing all of that, she allowed them to stay. To be safe. Reaching out she took the basket and gave him an uncertain look as Rick smiled down at her and started walking with Lisa following close behind him and Daryl bringing up the rear of their little troupe.

His eyes still never straying from the waif.

He couldn't help it, not when every protective instinct he possessed practically cried out for him to take her hand or something and never let go.


	17. Chapter 17

"This looks like a good one." Rick said as he picked a greenish-red apple up off of the ground with a grin and was about to put it in his bag when Lisa grasped his wrist and lifted it half way to her face and sniffed at it and then did the most peculiar thing Daryl had ever seen before.

She turned her ear to the fruit as if she were listening for something and then looked up at Rick who had gone completely still, not sure what to think of her actions as she rasped in a tired voice that barely reached either of their ears.

"No. It's rotten. I can hear the worms writhing at the core," After which she released his wrist and moved away from him as he dropped said apple and Daryl gave a rough sounding chuckle at the other man's expense. Earning a questioning look from said man as if he were trying to say, 'Well how the hell was I supposed to know?'

Even as he cleared his throat and then asked almost tentatively, "You can hear things like that?"

Lisa didn't bother looking at him as she walked up to the nearest tree, gave it a quick once over and then said, "I can hear shit that would turn your hair white," Which wasn't a lie. She could hear shuffling, gnawing and gnashing of undead teeth over moans and screams of what few people still remained in the area as they were caught and eaten. And then there was the sudden shifting of noise on the wind several moments ago...

Something or _someone_ was coming and she had a feeling that she would have to leave the house to draw them away. Which meant that her happy fun time with the guys needed to come to an end.

"Now come over here and stand under the tree with your sack open, this is taking far too long for my liking and I may need to leave once we're back at the house." She all but growled at him as she took up a stance and waited as Rick and Hottie both did as they were told.

And once they were in position, she exhaled softly- feeling badly for growling at them and made quick work of shaking the large tree with several well placed hits from the flat of her palm, shaking many more apples than any of them needed out of the tree so that the little orbs fell like rain.

It took ten more minutes or so for Rick and Hottie to finish collecting their halves before all three began the trek back to the house. Rick and Hottie, laughing and joking about never getting on her bad side since she'd likely kick their asses and trying to engage her in small talk about what had her so on edge all of a sudden.

But she remained silent as a tomb, occasionally stopping to glance over one of her shoulders. Her eyes worried as she scanned the woods and field. She could hear the sounds of motors about half a mile from the turnoff to her driveway. The sound of conversation.

Lewd men speaking about their need to rut and murder and to also find weapons, and other supplies.

They were drawing closer, and Lisa immediately grabbed Rick and Daryl and nearly jerked both men off of their feet as she yanked them to a stop. Her other half slowly taking over her senses as she quickly gave them both instructions to drop the damned apples, if they lived later then they could always come back to get them- and go warn the others at the house that they were about to have company.

To take the women and children and to hide behind the house until she came to get them.

Daryl understood the explicit detail of her orders, but not why they had to hide. Rick was the same and began to argue with her. "But if they're other survivors- why can't they stay here like us?"

To which Lisa replied in a cold dead tone, "I will not abide such people in my home nor on the land I live on. If they come here, _I will kill them_."


	18. Chapter 18

Rick and Daryl stared at Lisa for several seconds after she reached the house- both men not understanding her sudden shift in mood nor her reason for her earlier declaration that she would kill other survivors like themselves- as she slipped something on a thin leather chord from around her neck and handed it to Maggie, whom had come out of the house to greet them and then turned to Hershel and began to tell him to grab the cat and her kittens while she grabbed Carl.

At which point both men finally seemed to snap out of their funk enough for one of them to ask, "What is it?"

"People. And not the nice kind." Lisa hissed out in a soft voice before turning her head and telling them that she needed them to go and round everyone up, _quickly_. Knowing that the vehicles were almost to the farm and they had very little time to make it look abandoned.

She gave them explicit detail on what to take and what to leave out in the open as she made her way inside of her home and quickly and carefully collected Carl as both of Hershel's girls, Patricia, came running down the stairs with duffle bags of clothing and valuables that they didn't wish to lose.

 _Family heirlooms_. Lisa inwardly scoffed at the girl's silliness. Their home was going to be the center of a bloodbath and they were worried that someone would take their family trinkets. Though after a moment or so of thought, she supposed that if she had been an ordinary person- she would have packed up her families trinkets as well.

Especially the metal ones which could later be melted down and used for bullets.

So maybe packing their family valuable's wasn't such a bad idea.

Shifting Carl carefully in her arms as Rick and the rest of his group came into the house, Lisa said. "Maggie lead the way to the bunker."

"Right." Maggie said a little breathlessly as she led everyone towards the back of the house and out the back door as Rick came up and asked in a hushed tone.

"Where are we going?"

Lisa turned her head just enough to look at him a little bit over the top of Carl's head as she replied, "The underground bunker that I made when I was younger. All of you should be safe from the people who're coming down there." After which Lori and Shane began whispering among themselves while occasionally casting hateful glares over their shoulder's at Lisa.

"What exactly makes this bunker so safe?" Lori finally asked in a bitchy tone that had Rick reaching out and grabbing her arm in a vice-like grip earning a startled look from his wife a moment before she snapped angrily, " _What?_ Just because you've been taken in by the freak doesn't mean that the rest of us are so blind."

 _"Shut up."_ Rick hissed at her as Lisa turned her head a little bit to give Lori a frosty look that must have set the woman's teeth on edge if the pissed look on her face was any indication at all.

"Why the hell should I?" Lori snapped back at Rick as she jerked her arm free of his grasp.

"Because if you don't I'm going to _break_ your fucking jaw," Lisa suddenly said, causing everyone to turn and look at her. Including Daryl and Rick. "And don't think for a moment that I won't do it, breaking bones is easy. Especially when your annoyingly shrill voice will give away our location and cause all of you to be killed. _Now Shut. Up._ Or else." She said as she oh-so-very-gently handed Carl to Rick and then rudely shoved Lori into Crazy Eyes as she walked past the two dumbasses and made her way to Maggie's side as the young woman knelt down and took a moment to dig around for the hidden door before finding the lock and unlocking it and then getting up so that Lisa could slide the door open since no one else in their present company could do so.

And once she was finished doing so- she stood back and held her hand out to Rick and motioned for him and Hershel to go in first. "There's an infirmary where you can put Carl. It has nice beds, medicines, and just about anything else that you can think of that you may need to heal someone who is injured."

"How long do you think we'll be staying down here?" Hershel asked curiously as Rick went on ahead.

"A week. Maybe a little longer. I'll take care of the people coming here, and then I'll go out and begin collecting and setting up everyone's new home as well as the fences that I'm going to put up around the property."

"What will we do about light and food?" Someone else asked in a panicked tone.

"You'll be fine." Lisa replied calmly, or rather, as calmly as she could while keeping track of the fact that the vehicles were getting closer. "There are multiple electric generators and gas ones with fuel in the very back of the bunker and there's more than enough military rations and food in there to last a small army of people for quite some time-" There was the sound of a cow mooing loudly from within the bunker that had everyone left outside of it looking at her. "And there are animals to eat just in case... Now please stop asking questions and get the hell inside!" She said as she ushered in the last of them except for Daryl who merely shook his head no when she turned to him.

Rick was coming back up the steps with his gun plus a few extra's that he had found in one of the rooms in the bunker after laying Carl down on a bed in one of the many, many, many rooms.

"You can't stay out here," He heard Lisa say to Daryl as he finally reached the tops step. "If you stay out here, those people will find and kill you."

Daryl shook his head slowly, his blue/green eyes never straying from Lisa's face as he said, "Someone's gotta watch your back kid."

She opened her mouth to tall him that she didn't need anyone to watch her back but was cut off when Rick said, "He's right, Lisa. Whatever it is that you plan to do you can't do it alone."

"I can't exactly do it with people watching me either." The girl hissed at them before saying, "Do you have any idea what I'm going to be doing?"

Both men nodded their heads as Daryl shifted a little bit, pulling at the strap of his crossbow as he did so as he said, "Hunting. Killing-"

"Disposing of the bodies in led coffins so that there aren't more of them around. And then once all of that is done I'll have to hide the vehicles make sure that they have supplies, gas, oil. And once that's done- I have to start going into town and brining back materials for everyone's new home plus the fences that I plan to put up."

"Sounds like a party to me." Rick said somberly despite the grim smile curving his lips.

"So what do you want us to do?"

"Get into the bunker."

"Nah. Not happening kid. Think again." Daryl said as he watched the girl frown at him and Rick.

"Dammit! I don't have time to argue with the two of you. They're almost here."

"Then tell us what to do." Rick said as she turned on him and startled him by shoving him hard enough to stumble back just enough so that she could slam and relock the bunker door.

"You have a family. Stay and protect them. Me and Pretty Eyes will handle this." He heard her say as he caught himself with the railing to stop his fall back before he tumbled. And while he could partially understand where Lisa was coming from, especially if it meant defending their new home- Rick was nevertheless upset with the girl for pulling such a careless stunt.


	19. Chapter 19

Shortly after shutting Rick and the rest of his group up in the bunker, Lisa took a moment or two to hide the door to the place to keep others from finding it and attempting to get in and then led Daryl across the back of the property and into the woods just in time to keep from being seen by the 'others'.

Shortly after which she had led him through a little area full of bear traps and other nasty things that he supposed it was nice to know of since the last thing he needed was to attempt hunting on her lands at a later date only to find himself injured or incapacitated by the damned things.

"Where are we going?" He finally thought to ask after a little while spent circling the woods surrounding her home.

"Nowhere." She replied as she continued to lead him until they reached a tall, sturdy tree that had what looked like an somewhat sizable, new-ish looking clubhouse made of nothing but wood, glass and tin. Daryl turned his head to give her a somewhat disbelieving look for a moment.

His eyes questioning as she gave him a quick defensive look and then jumped and swung herself up into the tree's branches and then wrapped a leg around the branch that she had wound up on and swung herself back down to give him a hand up.

"Come on," She said as he stared at her offered hand for a moment before seeing to realize that she must be up to something and took a moment before deciding that it was probably best to listen to her and see what happened now.

Shifting his bow so that it rested against his back, he took her hand and was only moderately surprised when she yanked him up into the branches and let him settle himself next to her before letting his hand go so that she could shift herself around, and climb to her feet and walk across the branch that she had been seated on, before turning to him and holding her hand out again.

Daryl waved her off, stating that he could make it to where she was by himself. Something that the little lady scoffed at but let him make an attempt to reach where she was anyways. And after several moment's of trying to reach her- one of which he slipped a tad and his feet almost went out from under him- he finally reached Lisa's side where he got a very feminine version of what could only have been one of his older brother's glares coupled with a headshake.

"Come on. We don't have any time to waste horsing around." Lisa said as she moved from one limb to the next until she reached the door of the clubhouse and waited patiently for him to step inside before finally going, "Welcome to the control center. I use this place to monitor everything above ground and below it for miles." She said as he took a moment to look around the place, noting that it was broken up into three areas.

A computer room- with electricity- that housed close to ten different monitor's on a hand made wooden desk and a little swivel chair that had definitely seen better days. A little kitchen, complete with cabinets, a stove and fridge. And a bedroom with a little beanbag chair, several piles of books, a tiny adjoined bathroom (complete with an actual toilet and shower, and sink) a dresser, and a small bed.

The place didn't seem like much from the outside, but to Daryl it was obvious that she used the place often. There was a small waste basket full to almost overflowing with junk food wrappers and paper plates. The computer desk was littered with little scraps of candy bar wrappers.

And the bedroom and bathroom both were completely stocked with the necessities. Toilet paper, soap, shampoo, conditioner, a razor- hell the damn floor around the shower was even littered with articles of clothing!

Frowning a little bit, he glanced over at her as she seated herself in the chair before the computers and began turning them on one by one.

"How long has it been since you were last here?" He asked curiously. Wondering just how often it was that she actually used the place.

"Ever since I told everyone just what it is that I was. After everyone freaked out on me, I left the house and came here," Lisa said almost so softly that he had to strain to hear her before going on to say, "Plus I figured that it would be for the best." Daryl stared at her as he felt his heart begin to ache. "You know, since no one really trusted me or _cared_ all that much about the fact that I never wanted to be a monster. It was just the hand that I was dealt... Besides I've overheard your people talking about killing me."

He said nothing as she quickly got the computer monitors up and running before turning around in her seat to look at him for a moment and noted the somewhat guilty look on his handsome face before he looked away.

He was quiet for a moment before finally muttering, "You really can hear everything for miles, huh?"

"Yes." She said as he turned his head to look at her with a startled look. He knew that she had already demonstrated some of her abilities to him and the others, but unless he witnessed her using her abilities up close- he tended to forget from time to time that she really wasn't a normal person.

Locking eyes with her, he took in her young appearance and blamed the fact that he kept forgetting that she wasn't normal on her well polished innocent façade. Her young/seemingly innocent countenance kept throwing him.

He grunted and looked around again, unsure of what he should be doing as she turned away from him and began to check and see if the intruders had arrived as she said, "Chill out and take a load off, big guy. There's food and drinks in the kitchen. Help yourself while I plan out what to do with our new play pals."

Knowing that he had just been dismissed, Daryl felt uncertain whereas to proceed.

He _had_ stayed outside of the bunker to help the little gal by watching her back. And while it was a bit obvious that she didn't seem to know what to do with him, one would think that she would at least let him do what he had said he would do.

Which meant helping in any plans that she may be in need of making.

However he didn't voice his thoughts, hoping that Lisa would catch herself and include him as he went into the kitchen and quietly checked out the fridge and freezer.

 _Holy-_ He thought to himself as he pulled his head out and quietly closed the doors after snagging himself a soda. The girl hadn't been joking when she had said that there was food and drinks. Both the fridge and freezer were completely stocked with everything from meats, to vegetables, butter, salad dressings- there was even several loaves of bread sitting on part of the counter next to the kitchen sink.

Popping the tab on his soda, he meandered back to the main room and looked around for a second before deciding to drag the beanbag chair from the bedroom so that he could sit.


	20. Chapter 20

**lifelovelaugh- Glad that you like the fic.**

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An hour in a half and a couple of snacks later, Lisa finally drew Daryl's attention with a triumphant little sound as she leaned back in her seat with her hands behind her head, her back slightly arched as she watched the computer screens intently for a moment before saying.

"Okay, looks like it's almost go time. The assholes are already in the house making themselves comfy- See?" She said as she temporarily removed a hand from behind her head to point at one of the screens so that he could see them. Bending down a little bit to look at the monitor, Daryl saw what he managed to count anyways, at least twenty people.

All of which were men around his age, give or take a few years.

All were physically fit, muscular, athletic, and looked as rough as his older brother. Casting a quick glance at Lisa, he was tempted to tell her- _oh hell no_ \- and drag her back to the bunker kicking and screaming if he had too. They were _not_ going to tangle with those mean ass looking fuckers.

Especially her. He suddenly felt very worried about what would happen if those guys got their hands on her since they didn't look to have a friendly bone in their damn bodies. And he was slowly but surly beginning to fear what may happen to her if she engaged them since he wasn't sure if he'd be able to help her no matter how hard he may try.

"What do you think of our odds if I call for some help from those," She scrunched up her nose a little bit in an oddly cute manner before going on to say in a distasteful tone. "Thingy's... To thin them out a bit so that we can pick them off?"

He exhaled slowly before answering, "I'm not sure what exactly you are thinking about? What do you mean call those 'thingy's'? Do you mean the walkers?"

"Hn? Yeah."

"I think your crazy for wanting to call them here. Especially when it could mean more shit to clean up later." And then there was the fact that he was a person with a pulse and thus was seen as food by the walkers. But of course he didn't bother saying this since he was pretty sure that Lisa had something in mind to keep him safe from their grasp while picking off the bastards trespassing in her home.

Kneeling down next to her seat, he crowded her small form a little bit and used a hand to make her look at him as he asked her in a somewhat uncertain tone, "You sure you wanna do this? Just the two of us?"

There was no hesitation in her reply. She was absolutely one hundred and ten percent sure that the two of them could do this and reclaim her home and make it safe again for the others.

Sighing he quietly nodded his head in understanding and dropped his hand away from her face and asked, "Okay. How you wanna do this?" No sooner than he had uttered the words than she flashed him a small fanged smile and was up out of her chair so fast that she nearly knocked him over.

Moving away from her computer desk and the monitor's sitting there keeping silent vigil over everyone within her domain, Lisa made her way to one of the cabinets in her little kitchen and quickly dug out the small medical kit there and then returned to where Daryl was for a moment.

Just long enough to push the kit into his hands and tall him to 'hold onto that' as she brushed by him to go into the bedroom next and dug out a couple of walkie-talkies and some batteries that she kept hidden in a small nook under her bed along with a few other things.

Like the military grade grenades she had decided to keep.

 _Come to think of it- a few of those might come in handy_. She thought to herself as she pulled out four but left the rest in their hiding place out of the way.

Gathering everything up, she walked back into the small living room and gracefully folded her legs so that she was sitting indian style on the floor just a few inches across from him and laid everything out for him.

The grenades he could see coming in handy. The walkie's too. But the med kit...not so much. Not unless he got injured or something anyways.

"Okay..." He said slowly as he watched her push a walkie towards him, complete with working batteries before taking a hold of the medical kit and opening it and pulling out an clean syringe and popping the cap off of it and then stabbing herself in the wrist with it. "Hey! What the hell are you-" He started to say when he remembered that she had explained that her blood could heal mortal injuries and even regenerate and raise the dead. "Oh. Right. Sorry." He said as she gave him a weird look as she put the cap back on the used syringe and then grabbed three more.

"I'm going to give you these so that if you get injured or bitten- you'll heal instead of die. I want you to use one before we go out. The effects should last for about two hours. Use another just in case you get bitten. And another if you get mortally wounded."

"Isn't that a little overboard?"

"Nope. It's called covering all of your bases."

Daryl said nothing as she finished up with the needles before capping the last one and then scooting them across the floor to him and then licked the small wound on her wrist as she said, "Now this is what we're going to do..."


End file.
